The routine goes like this. An employee receives a call from his boss about a confidential deal. The voice belongs to the boss, and sometimes the face in the video also belongs to the boss, all made by AI.
Then a "lawyer" claiming to be from a major international law firm joined the meeting, also forged by AI, and told employees where to send the money.
U.S. prosecutors say the ring impersonated at least seven executives between 2024 and 2026, defrauding a total of about $129 million. A U.K. fintech company lost more than $11.5 million, a Florida pet food company lost more than $5.2 million, and a Missouri hospital lost nearly $5 million.
Three men were charged in New York after being arrested in Spain and the United Kingdom and are awaiting extradition.
The list of victims is very complex: financial technology, pet food, hospitals, and no industry patterns can be seen. The gang did not select industries, but financial personnel who had the authority to initiate large-amount remittances and were accustomed to obeying the instructions of senior executives.
Deepfake fraud is nothing new. What’s scary about this case is its completeness: it’s not a single piece of fake voice, but a whole set of “boss + lawyer” scripts, including the entire meeting process.
For corporate finance, the most practical line of defense is the process: for any large transfer, confirm it again through another channel, no matter how real the person in the video looks.